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All Hands on Deck: TECH Talks Session 3

Preparing for our final night of the session, the much awaited for TECH Talks is an all hands on deck process. Our workshop instructors transform the hockey rink into a showroom of the discoveries and creations from each workshop. Take a look around the rink and you’ll see a mini doctor’s office set up for biozone, a ring for our robots, tables of laptops showing off the video games and programs, microscopes to examine the organisms in our water, chemistry experiments bubbling over, and 3D animations projected on the glass.

This session, our Instructors sailed into the Performing Arts Center, opening the pirate themed night with a duel. At 6 Points Pirate Academy, the brightest minds in the 7 seas lead our young pirates in a session filled with curiosity, patience, respect, connections, and discoveries.

3D Animation

TECH Talks for 3D Animation was a hardy display of talents between two different disciplines from the 3D animation field. In Character Animation, campers developed one of a kind animations featuring remade human models and a T-Rex! In hard surface modeling, campers created structures like the Parthenon and space ships! Check out their animations below!

Biozone

Our Sci-Tech physicians began their medical career with the traditional white coat ceremony, which included reciting the Hippocratic Oath. As young physicians they covered several different medical diagnoses and patient centered cases! The different cases focused on the brain, the liver, and transmittable diseases. A highlight of the session was dissecting a sheep brain, learning about the function of different regions of the brain, and examining it under a microscope. Our 3rd session campers really enjoyed learning the liver song, and can now sing all about the function of the liver. Before beginning the cases, we learned how to take a proper history and vital signs, which we showed off at TECH Talks during our pop-up Sci-Tech medical clinic.

Programming and Coding

We had a great time in the Programming & Coding workshop this session! We used Processing to learn about the basics of programming in Java, including types, variables, and functions. With lower camp, we created shapes and made some simple games, while with upper camp, we focused on practicing our problem-solving skills by doing CodingBat problems. This session we got really into colors, specifically Lavender Blush, Lemon Chiffon, and Papaya Whip. Yes, they are real colors. The Tech Talks projects turned out amazing this session! Each camper came up with the idea for their project on their own and we had a wide range of projects, including Connect Four, a To-Do list, and a cat generator! The world needs more coders with good morals and ideals, and these campers will be the next batch of them.

Robotics

This session was another whirlwind for Robotics. Overall these were some of the most reliable and well built bots Sci-Tech has ever seen! 5th and 6th grade did tabernacle tackle where they used robots to rebuild the tabernacle from Shemot. The 6th grade also got to play Bushel Bedlam and used their robots to collect wiffle balls and score various goals. 8th and 9th grade played Fast Break and and had a rousing game of robot basketball. At the beginning of the session, our campers demonstrated savlanut (patience) as they worked out the kinks in the structure and coding of their robots to ensure they could complete the challenges. Finally, our 12 10th graders built a spectacular Rube Goldberg machine. A Rube Goldberg Machine, is an intricate contraption, which uses many steps to accomplish a simple task in the most complicated way possible. After a record of just 16 tries they were able to successfully print Devon’s infamous campfire speech! What a great way to end the summer!

Video Game Design

As in past sessions, the Videogame Design workshop campers followed our motto to “play with purpose” and took on “challenges by choice,” as they practiced kesher (connection) and savlanut (patience), working in teams to design and develop new games. In lower camp, 8 teams explored development tools including Scratch, Stencyl, and Kodu while designing a variety of game styles including adventure/action, platformer, and tycoons. Upper camp’s 8 teams chose from the former development tools plus more sophisticated ones such as GameBlox and Unity, in creating a range of game styles including action/adventure, platformer, driving, and arcade-physics. All the teams proudly showed-off their game prototypes for the rest of camp to try-out in the TECH Talks Arcade on Saturday night!

Earth and Sky

Earth & Sky this session was amazing! The campers decided that because the first two sessions focused on drinking water, they would focus on the grossest water on camp – mostly storm drains! Not surprisingly, it was pretty gross! We ventured out the marsh and throughout campus to collect the grossest water we could find and then examined it under the microscope. We also went on a fabulous whale watch and saw minke and humpback whales in their natural habitat! At TECH Talks, we showed off our samples under the microscope so all could see the fun microorganisms floating in the storm drains around camp.

Chemistry

During Session 3, the campers were creative and passionate about their TECH Talks projects and own discoveries. They investigated how bees see flowers as they detect ultra-violet light absorption, created plastic from milk, made ice cream using dry ice, titrated and analyzed the amount of salycylic acid in aspirin, grew crystals via chemical reaction and evaporation, and compared structure, properties, and formation of various substances including amber, caramel, calcium silicates, diamond and graphite. They learned that scientists constantly ask questions and perform experimenst to learn new principles. The goal is to be able to apply and share them with the rest of the community. They learned about patience, and that experimental results may not be what you expect, but always result in new discoveries, skills, and questions.

Start-Up Nation

This session, Start-Up Nation’s students met with the entrepreneurial world, by learning the secrets behind the innovation process. Together, we went on a creative journey through ideation, entrepreneurship 101, business planning, marketing, design, and pitch presenting. Our tables were covered in papers filled up with random thoughts and sketches, and room was buzzing with conversation as campers worked together to brainstorm ideas and develop their projects. At the end of camp, the students presented 5 outstanding product concepts, during our pitch day. The presentations took place in front of a group of professional innovators, who were really impressed by each project and provided helpful feedback to our Sci-Tech entrepreneurs.

Digital Film Production

This was our biggest session of Digital Film Production ever, with an astounding 9 groups! We had a full spectrum of film being made: horror, comedy, mocumentary, news, and so much more. It was a pleasure to show our 50 minute film real in the PAC and hear the uproarious laughter of the campers as they saw their friends and peers tell incredible stories. Each camper played a role in writing, acting, filming, and editing and each person has a lot to be proud of this session! These skills that they learn, whether it be writing a script, playing a new character, using professional editing software, or working in a team, are all skills that they will continue to use after camp when they enter the “real” world. In our pirate themed TECH Talks, Lillian the DFP instructor, told the campers that as captain, her crew of counselor producers is important for sailing the seas of production, but our campers are definitely the true treasure of camp.